Organization donates $10,000 toward Freedom Area stadium lights

Sunday

Aug 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 25, 2013 at 7:30 PM

By Bill Utterbackbutterback@timesonline.com

NEW SEWICKLEY -- Sensing an opportunity to affect multiple communities through a single action, PUSH Beaver County has pledged $10,000 toward the rental of a generator to power stadium lights at Freedom Area's Bulldog Stadium through the fall sports season.

"This is a goodwill effort," Chris Malagise, PUSH secretary, said. "This is an opportunity for us to donate back to the community."

The offer affects Freedom Area and all the schools scheduled to visit Freedom Area during the football, boys soccer and girls soccer seasons.

"The biggest thing is the kids," Malagise said. "That's what got us involved. Kids playing football ... kids playing soccer ... kids in the band ... they've all dreamed about playing under the lights."

PUSH Beaver County sponsors the annual Beaver County BOOM fireworks event, provides scholarships to each county school district, and searches for opportunities to help individual communities.

"We're talking Friday night football in Beaver County, come on. This was an easy one," Malagise said. "In the first two days, we had private donors and businesses pledge $5,000. When you get $5,000 in two days, you know you've found something important to a lot of people."

The lights at Bulldog Stadium failed earlier this month because of a weakness in an underground line, according to district officials.

The district was faced with moving all football, boys soccer and girls soccer to daylight starting times, or paying up to $15,000 for a generator to fuel the lights through the fall sports season. The challenge brought more than 75 people to a school board meeting this past week, all of them pressuring the board to spend money for the generator. Several board members were concerned with financial responsibility, noting that daylight games would not stress the district's budget.

"This was an unforeseen situation, and we felt like we could help," Malagise said. "It was the right thing to do."

Kathleen Schlegel, Freedom Area board president, said the offer was "wonderful ... amazing" but noted that it would require approval of the district's administration and school board. Malagise said the offer will likely cause the PUSH phone to ring a little more frequently, but the group will answer the calls.

"We're not going to buy new uniforms for everybody," he said. "But if the cause is worthy, we will try to help."

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